Specialist Registrar in Transplant Surgery at Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Great Ormond Street Hospitals and Research Fellow, at King’s College London
Specialist Registrar in Transplant Surgery at Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Great Ormond Street Hospitals (London, UK) and Research Fellow, at King’s College London (UK).
Pankaj Chandak is a Specialist Registrar in Transplant Surgery at Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Great Ormond Street Hospitals and a Research Fellow, at King’s College London. His interests include complex pediatric transplantation and applications of machine organ perfusion technology and innovation. Chandak is using a novel bypass machine (
ex vivo normothermic perfusion) to pump human kidneys from deceased donors to determine ways to protect the organ, prior to transplantation, with therapeutic agents that bind to the kidney to prevent organ rejection and help regeneration. This research may help to overcome immunological barriers. Furthermore, Chandak’s multidisciplinary work has led to first integration of 3D printing into complex pediatric transplantation, to aid the planning of challenging transplants in children. The original 3D models used in the planning of a transplant of this kind using this technology have been accepted by the Science Museum in London (UK) for permanent exhibition for their new Medical Galleries (2019).
You can find out more about these models with our series of interviews from the Science Museum >> Chandak has received several prestigious awards including The Royal Society of Medicine Norman Tanner Medal, The Cutler’s Clark Medal and The Royal College of Surgeons of England Joseph Lister Prize and Medal. In addition, he delivered The British Science Association Charles Darwin Award Lecture at the British Science Festival in 2017 is also recipient of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Arnott Lecture and Medal, delivered at the British Transplantation Society 2016. Chandak has been an invited speaker to The Royal Society, The Royal Institution, The Women’s Institute, The Lichfield Engineering and Scientific Society, Parliament and The Human Tissue Authority amongst others. He is recipient of The International Pediatric Transplant Young Scholar Award 2017 and The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) National Award for Excellence in Research and Innovation. In 2018, his team was awarded The UK Health Tech Pioneer of the Year Award.
Public engagement activities include appearances for film and radio including the BBC and BBC World Service. He has undertaken school science activities and has also set up the first Children’s Transplant Choir called ‘Harmonies of Hope‘ funded by BBC Children in Need. Chandak was also medical advisor for the Netflix series, The Crown, and along with his team, has appeared in Episode 1, playing the surgeons operating on the King George VI — a first for television where real surgeons act in film. He has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (FRAS) and a Fellow of the Linnean Society (FLS).
